Tokka Month Day 6: Disabilities
by feliipsun
Summary: Background: Toph had Lin, then she and Sokka was married and had a child, but he died in an accident. This story is about his funeral. Sneak peek: She cried out her frustration. Her voice was loud and highly pitched. Her hands slapped her face and pulled her hair like a mad woman. She didn't have any control of her body now. Even tears had now streamed down her red cheeks.


**A/N**: I've had this headcanon since a long time ago. Lord, I cried when I typed this. I hope you enjoy this angsty mini fic, and sorry it's a little late!  
Edit: Wow. This was longer than I intended. Now cut in not-so-equally half!

**Word count**: 1454

**Background**: Toph had Lin, then she and Sokka was married and had a child, but he died in an accident. This story is about his funeral.

**Sneak peek**: She cried out her frustration. Her voice was loud and highly pitched. Her hands slapped her face and pulled her hair like a mad woman. She didn't have any control of her body now. Even tears was now streaming down her red cheeks. Toph, the greatest earth bender, the inventor of metal bending, the youngest hero and the toughest girl in the world, was now broken.

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**Tokka Month Day 6: Disabilities**

It was an unusually cloudy day in Republic City. Wind blew across a vast ground full of people, caressing their cheeks. It dried beads of tears flowing down the face of a man, and ruined his ponytail. Yes, he was known as Sokka of the water tribe, now one of the councilmen from Republic City.

He was kneeling beside a woman; his hand side-hugging her, whilst the other touched a box his two blue, sharp eyes were aimed to. He shook his head with a shaky gust of air escaping his lips. He raised his eyes and saw grey clouds filled the sky, as a few drops of rain fell on his face. Were they crying too?

Toph, the woman beside him, was sitting on the ground. Her head was facing down with a hand – which was shaking horribly - covering her mouth. In front of her was a box, presumably a coffin. A beautiful one, in general opinion. It was made of stone, carved, and polished by the greatest earthbender herself. On its lid, placed beside the box, a small shape of boomerang was carved carefully, original from the best warrior in the entire southern water tribe. There's nothing wrong with the coffin itself, except for its size. It's clearly too small for a normal adult.

Her face was still as tough as it always seemed; but unlike her husband, it was emotionless. She tried to hold back her emotion, but she's breaking. The strong wall she's always proud of was breaking down. She wouldn't want to admit her misery, but her shaking hands and trembling breath gave it away.

A little girl approached the two adults. Around her neck was a stone necklace, dangling and bouncing along her movements. On its surface was engraved a word: Lin. Her small hands tugged her mother's upper shirt, and pointed his fingers to the other side of the ground. Even though she couldn't see, she did understand her daughter's indications. She rose up and lifted the little girl while slowly walked to the appointed place, followed by Sokka.

Aang stepped on a podium placed near the small stone coffin. He wore his usual air nomad clothes, but instead of his usual red shawl, he used a white one. The airbender cleared his throat and began.

"Three days ago, we lost a family. A new-born from our dearest friends – Sokka of the water tribe, and Toph Beifong of Gao Ling. His death was tragic," he took a short pause to stable his breathing, "-and unexpected. We haven't got enough time to get to know him, we may not know his name-"

His speech was cut by a shout from the audience. "Liang," Toph said, her blank, unseeing eyes were facing to the general direction of Aang, "His name is Liang. Sokka and I just named him yesterday."

Aang nodded politely, knowing this was the last time she could officially name him, "but we all know that he will always been remembered in our hearts. A cute, little boy we love."

He raised his hand and announced, "For Liang."

And silence responded his announcement. There were sounds of people holding back their cries and some sniffs. Lin, being the littlest of them all, didn't understand what was going on. She pulled her mother's clothes and asked her questions. They were not answered, of course. Since the said woman was trying to maintain her emotion barrier, which she knew would break if she said a word.

Then, after the moment of silence finished, the avatar walked down the podium, greeted by claps from the crowd. Families were allowed to approach the coffin and say their last words. Toph and Sokka, as his parents, the ones hurting the most of the baby's death, were the first to step forward.

Toph knelt beside the infant. A boy she brought to the world, was now gone. Now she couldn't hear his cute crying voice, she couldn't feel his cute little hands wrapping around hers, she couldn't hear his heartbeat matching with hers, she couldn't touch his soft baby skin and tackle his tiny, ticklish feet, and especially, she couldn't hear his adorable laughing voice.

She shifted her hand to touch his one last time, but she stopped an inch before his skin. What if she couldn't let go of his hand? What if she couldn't stop touching him? She hadn't had enough 'sight' of him. Of her own baby. Why couldn't she see? Why wasn't she allowed to see her own child?

The sadness inside her was now gone, replaced by anger. She slapped her eyes. She loathed her eyes. Her stupid, _stupid_ blind eyes. If only they could work, she could have saved her child. If only they could work, she could have seen the glass and the blocks of wood that hurt her child. If only they could work, she could have run and shield him one way or another. She could have made an instant earth tent! Only by a flick of her hand, and he's safe! Or… or… she could use her body! She could, and she _would_! She was a mother, and a mother would do anything to protect her children from harm.

If only those stupid-!

She cried out her frustration. Her voice was loud and highly pitched. Her hands slapped her face and pulled her hair like a mad woman. She didn't have any control of her body now. Even tears was now streaming down her red cheeks. Toph, the greatest earth bender, the inventor of metal bending, the youngest hero and the toughest girl in the world, was now broken.

Sokka held her hands and hugged her tightly, preventing her from hurting herself more. He was crying, but he still had control of his actions. Their wet cheeks caressed each other as he swayed and hummed a melody Uncle Iroh taught him. His voice was cracking, of course, but it didn't fail to calm his wife.

"S-Sokka…" she whispered, a few drops of salty tears entered her mouth, "I caused all this... My blindness, my- my **_disability_ **caused all of this! I- I-" she choked, started breaking again. Her tough, thick, unbreakable wall had broken. And when it broke, it broke down hard.

"This is all my fault…" her voice faded at the end of her sentence.

"No, no, no no, it isn't. It isn't." he cupped her face and hugged her from her front, "it isn't. It's my fault. If only I were there, if only I helped you in our house instead of going on a meeting, I could save him too…"

"NO! You don't understand! I really could save him if I weren't born blind! If- if I-"

The man hugged her tighter, preventing her from saying another word. She didn't fight. She buried her face in her husband's chest, dampening his already wet shirt. A hug. A real, warm hug, was exactly what she needed right now. She knew Sokka was hurting too. But her arms were too weak to hug him back, to comfort the man she cared the most. She couldn't even lift them to pat his back.

Shaking and crying, the two of them poured their hearts out to each other, not caring that others were watching this heart breaking scene.

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**A/N**: I hope you enjoy this story. And sorry for not updating my two other fics. They're on hiatus.

Comments, critics, suggestions, corrections (especially in grammar), or anything related to the story are welcome. Just hit the review button!

Thank you for reading this story.


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